AbstractThe qualitative nature of the U.S. national farm price and income dilemma has long been generally but rather vaguely known. Contemporary econometric analysis can identify more precisely the magnitudes and interrelations that compose and surround this perplexing dilemma. This article undertakes to go beyond the established approach of measuring supply and demand price elasticities to the equally important and perhaps more productive identification and measurement of the relevant supply and demand shifters. By projecting magnitudes to 1985, long‐run policy implications of prospective changes can be examined with greater acuity.